Times-Picayune archiveThe St. John the Baptist Parish School Board voted to award its bus maintenance contract Tyrone Auto Repair.

Instead, it voted 7-4 to award the contract to the next lowest proposal, Tyrone Auto Repair, at a cost of $255,000 per year.

Dale "Pierre" Cambre had submitted the lowest proposal at $248,000. First Student, a national management company, submitted the only other bid, at $326,529.

Cambre had been performing the work on a case-by-case basis under an emergency contract signed after the death of A.O. "Boy" Williams, owner of Boy's Auto Shop, the district's former contractor.

But at a special meeting on Thursday, some board members questioned whether the proposal process for the permanent three-year contract was properly handled.

Board member Albert "Ali" Burl III said Cambre did not get insurance until after the deadline for proposals. After that time, he also changed the name of the business under which the proposal was submitted. Cambre, Williams' stepson, originally submitted his bid under Boy's Auto Repair but later changed the name to Pierre's Shop after heirship issues were raised in the family.

Burl said under the public bid law the bid must be responsive, or meet all requirements, at the time the bidding period is closed.

However, Finance Director Felix Boughton said it was not a bid.

"It was a proposal. That's why it's flexible," he said.

Contracts for services are not required to follow the public bid law and can instead be handled as request for proposals.

Assistant Superintendent Herbert Smith said one of the benefits of proposals is it allows the district to be flexible with companies, especially smaller local vendors who might not be familiar with how to submit a bid.

"In all fairness, the other vendor (Tyrone's Auto Repair) did not have proof of liability insurance on file," he said. "We were fair with both vendors because they're local."

Boughton said if the district had been accepting bids, only one company would have met all the requirements by the deadline.

"And that would have been First Student, and we would be paying $100,000 more," he said. "That's why we do proposals, so we can get the lowest price."

Although the board authorized the administration to go out for proposals at a previous meeting, board member Russell Jack said he would rather take bids.

"Politics come into it. Everybody has their favorite people they want in it," he said. "I think the fair thing to do is to divide it equally or go out for bids."

The district in the past has had two contracts for the service, one with Williams on the east bank and one with Haston Lewis Sr. on the west bank.

"I think it's a simple process here," board member Keith Jones said. "We have two local vendors here. In the past, we awarded the contract to two local vendors."

However, Jones' motion to divide the contract between Cambre and Tyrone Lennix, who owns Tyrone Auto Repair, failed for lack of a second.

Board member Russ Wise questioned whether the administration had made sure the local mechanics could handle servicing large vehicles such as buses.

Purchasing director Peter Montz said the district's transportation director had gone to the shops and done a visual inspection.

However, a bus driver at the meeting said when her bus needed an oil change, Cambre's shop lacked the equipment to change the oil. Smith, after the meeting, said the administration had not been made aware of any issue with the shop.

Wise asked to table the matter until the next meeting to make sure both mechanics were able to handle simple tasks like oil changes. However, his motion to table failed.

Board member Rodney Nicholas instead made a motion to award the contract to Lennix.